"Brand Aid, Not Band-Aid"

Close your eyes and think of Africa as a place to do business. What images spring to mind? Poor, corrupt and hopeless? Or a developing market with huge untapped potential? Too often, it's the former, which is one reason why the whole of Africa received just 3% of the world's total foreign direct investment last year. But some African countries, hoping to get a more upbeat message across to a skeptical world public, are working to change their image. Last month, the Tanzanian government hosted a two-day international conference in Dar-es-Salaam devoted to its "nation-branding" strategy. Botswana, too, recently announced plans to start working on a branding project of its own.